A subject of the invention is a device for displaying and dispensing a plurality of products with the same format or outline, in particular in the field of cosmetics or parapharmaceuticals.
One of the ways of selling these products is the self-service method, in particular, in general or specialist hypermarkets.
In self-service sales areas, the products are usually displayed either on a more or less flat or slightly inclined surface or along a vertical wall.
The more or less flat configuration corresponds to the case in which the products to be sold are displayed on a table or on shelves arranged on a gondola. As a general rule, when in particular products of a relatively small size, such as cosmetics, are involved, these products are commonly displayed by means of a specific display unit made from moulded plastic material having a horizontal surface overall in which pockets are arranged each intended to house a sample of a product. Thus, for example, there are cylindrical pockets of small diameter for oblong products such as, for example, lipstick tubes and above all for products such as mascara tubes. Recesses or steps can be provided for housing rows of relatively flat products such as compacts for make-up or foundation. Less deep pockets are also provided for housing the lower part of products of more complex shape, for example, bottles of nail varnish.
Such a display unit contributes to the highlighting of products offered for sale. However, the effectiveness of this highlighting can deteriorate quite rapidly as soon as customers take products from their pockets, if only to see all the products such as tubes of lipstick or mascara, and do not replace them in the right place, for example laying them flat between several pockets. This produces a disorganized appearance which definitely disrupts the sought overall aesthetic effect. Similarly, as the products offered for sale are taken by customers, the display unit is depleted, thus progressively giving an impression of emptiness. To overcome these drawbacks of disorganization and emptiness, it is necessary for the sales staff to regularly restock the empty pockets and replace the incorrectly placed products.
The same drawbacks can be found regarding parapharmaceutical products when care is taken with the display and a specific display unit is provided to this end.
When the available surface is a more or less vertical panel, be it a gondola panel or a wall panel, products are commonly displaced by means of a system of more or less parallel hooks arranged perpendicular to the available surface. Such an arrangement of course means that the products offered for sale have been packaged in blister packs, i.e. by means of packaging in plastic material having a general rectangular shape preventing any direct handling of the products by customers.
In this vertical configuration, the effect of emptiness can be a little less significant inasmuch as in practice, each hook carries a succession of similar products such that the removal by a customer of the most accessible product reveals that located directly behind. However, the impression of holes corresponding to the space left by the product which has been taken, persists. It is therefore common for the sales staff to be obliged to bring to the front in a very accessible configuration the products remaining at the back, near to the vertical wall itself.
There can also be mentioned a very old configuration of a display and dispensing unit for products described in the document FR-804 100 published in 1936; this unit comprises compartments divided into stacked rows and in which products are arranged one behind the other being pushed forwards by a spring. The front end of each compartment is free, making it easy to grip of forward most product due to the fact that the compartment of the level directly above is set back.
However, such a configuration has the drawback in particular that the proximity of the compartments prevents the products from being appreciated individually from a visual point of view; in addition, the bevelled shape of the front of the unit, necessary for a good grip of the products, gives the displayed products an overall terraced configuration which reinforces the impression of accumulation; yet this bevelled shape prevents the use of available space from being optimized (the upper compartments contain fewer products than those below, unless the loss of the rear space of the lower compartment is accepted) finally, this stand appears to be suitable only for products with a simple shape.
A subject of the invention is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks thanks to a display and dispensing device which combines the possibility of displaying the products, each individually and more or less in its entirety, the automatic replacement of a product which a customer has just taken by another of the same type (whilst still allowing, in the contrary case, the reintroduction of this product), with a minimization of the risks of jamming, but in an optimal state of cleanliness, whilst optimizing the use of the available volume without however detracting from the overall aesthetic effect through an effect of accumulation and without having to be restricted to products of a simple shape.
To this end, the invention proposes a device for displaying and dispensing a plurality of products of the same format, in particular in the field of cosmetics or parapharmaceuticals, comprising:
a front panel pierced by at least one opening shaped to allow a product through;
a housing element connected to the front panel in front of each opening, shaped so as to be able to house and hold the lower part of a product;
a guide element lying perpendicular to the front panel and connected to the front panel behind each opening and shaped so as to hold, with clearance, the products from below, from above and on the sides;
a pusher engaged with clearance in the guide element and shaped so as to be able to be held by this element from below, from above and on the sides;
an elastic means forcing the pusher towards the opening.
Thus defined, the invention is characterized in particular vis-à-vis document FR-804 100 by the fact that there is a front panel pierced by openings behind which are arranged guide elements and a housing element in front of this panel opposite each guide element. The panel constitutes a type of base on which each product can be distinguished visually in an individual manner. The display in front of the panel allows the guide elements to be perpendicular to this panel which allows an optimal usage of the available space (the guide elements can be the same length, the whole occupying a volume which is more or less parallelepiped). The panel allows an optimal masking of the guide elements arranged at the back, in particular thanks to the fact that the openings are shaped as function of the product and can thus very closely resemble the outline of the latter. The appropriate shaping of the guide elements and, if need be, of the pusher allows a correct progression of the products, even in the case of products with a complex shape. Finally, the shaping of the housing element (separate from the guide element) as a function of the shape of the product allows a good display of each product, as it is possible to take the shape of the product into account both at the front and the sides. It can be noted here that added to the risk of jamming due to the thrust exerted on a collection of products of complex shape (bottles of varnish) possibly tapered (tubes of mascara) and/or provided with external reliefs (lipsticks provided with a gripping ring for example) there was a priori for a person skilled in the art, the risk of a very variable (and probably unattractive) display of the products at the exit of the guide element, failing provision being made for keeping the object in position over a very large part of its surface (in particular its height), thus rendering it almost impossible for the customer to take hold of the object and release it. It has however been found that by giving an optional inclination to the support surface of the pusher (or to parts of it) and by optionally making the section of the guide element to be quite similar in shape to the outline of the objects to be displayed, it was possible to safely bring each of the objects successively through the opening in the housing element, and that it was not necessary to provide for a support for the objects over a large part of their surface, and that it was sufficient for example, with regard to objects as oblong as tubes of mascara, to hold them over a height of just a quarter to a third without this posing a problem even in the case of the reintroduction of products.
According to preferred characteristics of the invention, optionally combined:
the housing element comprises a lateral wall made form a more or less transparent material; this allows the whole product to be seen, and from several angles;
the housing element is connected to the front panel by its base wall;
this device comprises several identical openings and housing elements and guide elements in numbers equal to those of these openings;
each opening has a section similar, clearances apart, to the format of the product considered;
this guide element is made of transparent material; it is for example a section; this allows the remaining products to be counted without detracting from the attractiveness of the whole since this element is hidden by the front panel;
this guide element has more or less the same internal section as the opening to which it is connected;
the pusher has a front surface formed from portions having different inclinations chosen as a function of the format of the product such that the product which is located in the housing element is more or less parallel to the front panel in the same orientation as the opening;
in the case where the product has a shape which broadens upwards from a narrow zone, the front surface of the pusher has a portion inclined upwards and rearwards;
the elastic means is subjected to tensile stress;
the elastic means comprises at least one spring sheet wound in a spiral which runs alongside the guide element and one end of which is fixed at least temporarily at the opening; this spring sheet can run alongside the products from below, also from above and/or on one side;
this elastic means can comprise a second spring sheet the rear end of which is linked to a removable element which can be, as required, hooked on to the piston or to a rear portion of the guide element; this aspect original in itself can be used, in fact, independently of the presence or not of the front panel and the housing element;
this spring sheet rests on the back of a portion (for example the lower) of the pusher; to this end, this portion advantageously comprises a wall provided with a transverse slit for the passage of the spring sheet;
the pusher is provided with at least one rib intended to be guided by the guide element.
The invention also proposes a display unit comprising a plurality of devices of the above-mentioned type, some at least of these devices having front panels of the same dimensions. Such a display unit is thus modular and the locations of the devices can be easily transposed.